As PGA-LIV deal nears, Adam Scott understands ‘negative’ feelings
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The group of Adam Scott of Australia, Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, and Viktor Hovland of Norway walks off the fifth tee during the first round of The Genesis Invitational 2025.
PHOTO: AFP
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LOS ANGELES – More than 18 months since the two rival sides shocked the golf world by announcing a “framework” merger agreement, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are still hammering out the finer details.
Adam Scott has a critical role in those negotiations as both the chairman of the Tour’s Player Advisory Council (PAC) and as a player-director on the policy board since 2024. The Australian understands not everyone in the PGA camp may be happy with the result of a potential reunification.
“I wouldn’t be surprised – or I wouldn’t judge anyone – if reunification happened and they weren’t happy with how it happened,” Scott told the Associated Press at last weekend’s Genesis Invitational.
“I wouldn’t hold it against anybody if there were negative emotions attached to it, the thought of players coming back.”
The ramifications of a reunification are still up in the air.
In 2024, a popular talking point was for PGA stars who turned down big money from LIV to be made financially whole for their loyalty. It is also unclear how LIV players who wish to play Tour events again will be re-acclimatised and whether that would come at the expense of some tour cards for the rank and file.
Scott, 44, was elected chairman of the PAC in February 2023 – four months before PGA commissioner Jay Monahan stunned his Tour’s membership by appearing with Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan for a CNBC interview to announce a merger agreement that had been kept under wraps.
The PGA Tour has done plenty since then, including striking an agreement with a new minority partner (Strategic Sports Group) to help fund its new for-profit wing, PGA Tour Enterprises.
“I’ll be honest, it took a couple of months to wrap my head around stuff,” Scott said.
“Within the first few weeks of me coming on the board, we’re voting for a minority shareholder to take equity in the Tour. There aren’t easy answers to any of this stuff. Everyone is entitled to feel something about what’s happened.
“The one thing I do know is we’re not going to please everyone, but everyone should know that I will stand behind these player-directors. They’re trying to do the best thing for the entire membership.”
Scott has been thrust into a very prominent role in the negotiations.
The PGA Tour appealed to President Donald Trump shortly after his inauguration, and Scott went with Monahan to visit Mr Trump at the White House earlier in February to discuss the matter.
He also reminded golf fans that the PGA Tour is not the only stakeholder sitting in on these discussions.
“There’s two people in this discussion, more to be honest – the DP World Tour, a lot of other stakeholders in the pro game,” he told AP. “The Tour and its representatives... we’re not in control of the entire situation. It’s not been an easy thing to solve, otherwise we’d have solved it, I believe.”
While many PGA members may have genuine gripes about the LIV Golf members returning potentially unpunished, Rory McIlroy – once an outspoken critic of LIV – said last week that everyone essentially needs to move on.
“Whether you stayed on the PGA Tour or you left, we have all benefited from this,” he said.
“We’re playing for a US$20 million (S$26.8 million) prize fund this week. That would have never happened if LIV hadn’t have come around.” REUTERS
